1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a food waste disposal system, which is provided with two rotational shafts, a screw-shaped ribbon attached along the rotational shaft, and a mixing blade installed at the end of the rotational shaft, so that the food waste in the mixing basin is continuously mixed and crushed by the rotation of the screw-shaped ribbon and a mixing blade and decomposed by the microbes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, organic waste, such as food waste, contains a large amount of fibrous vegetable and animal material, protein, carbohydrates and calcium. Accordingly, if the organic waste is disposed of as it is in a landfill, without being decomposed, leachate generated from the organic waste permeates into the soil, resulting in the contamination of ground water.
Conventional food waste disposal technologies using microbes are disclosed in Korea Utility Model Publication Nos. 20-1995-5245, 20-1995-7541, 20-1995-7395, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 20-1994-24804. These technologies are related to methods and apparatuses of fertilizing and composting food waste or organic waste.
The conventional methods and apparatuses can reduce some of the organic matter in food waste or organic waste, but are insufficient with respect to disposal efficiency and capacity because they take a long period to decompose organic matter and they cannot completely decompose organic matter. As a result, odors are generated due to the hazardous gas generated upon the incomplete decomposition of food waste.
Korean Utility Model No. 20-270982 discloses “Apparatus for Decomposing Organic Waste”, Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2006-19663 discloses “Apparatus for Treating Food Waste”, and Korean Patent No. 10-535699 discloses “Structure of Mixing Basin of Apparatus for Treating Food Waste”.
Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-20982 discloses “Apparatus for Decomposing Organic Waste”, which comprises a rotational shaft having a plurality of arm blades, installed along a central horizontal line of a cell casing provided in a housing, a rotation device which includes a gear motor, a driving sprocket, a linking sprocket, and a chain, for rotating the rotational shaft, a hot water tank, and a sprayer with a plurality of spray nozzles, which is installed in an upper part of the cell casing for spraying hot water from the hot water tank into the cell casing, in which the inner temperature of the cell casing can be adjusted by selectively supplying the hot water from the hot water tank, which is provided with a pre-heater.
Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2006-19663 discloses “Apparatus for Treating Food Waste”, in which food wasted introduced through an entrance formed in an upper portion of a treatment basin is pulverized when it passes through a pulverizing mill and falls down, the pulverized food waste is mixed by mixing blades and decomposed, and then the decomposed food waste is discharged, in which the treatment basin is cleaned by spraying water using a sprayer installed in an upper portion of the treatment basin.
Korean Patent No. 10-535699 discloses “Structure of Mixing Basin of Apparatus for Treating Food Waste” which comprises an outer casing having mixing blades therein, an upper plate which has a drain with a screen thereon and is fixed to the lower end portion of the outer casing, and a lower plate having a drain in the center portion thereof, which is provided under the upper plate and is integrated with the upper plate, in which food waste introduced through an entrance of the outer casing and onto the upper plate is mixed by the mixing blades, and leachate from the food waste is drained through the screen, flows down to the lover plate, and is then discharged through the drain provided to the lower plate.
The above-described food waste disposal apparatuses are operated suing manual switches in an analog manner. Accordingly, they have problems in that the manipulation thereof is inconvenient and in that they cannot be selectively operated in either an automatic manner or a manual manner. Further, since hot water cannot be supplied into the cell casing (mixing basin), the food waste treatment capacity and efficiency thereof are low, and it is difficult to clean the inside of the cell casing, and thus odors linger around the apparatus. Further, since a cleansing device for cleansing the lower plate, on which leachate collects, is not provided, odors occur. Still further, since the cell casing (mixing basin) does not have a leachate discharge device, leachate overflowing from the cell casing cannot be easily discharged, so that the apparatus cannot be smoothly operated.
In order to overcome the disadvantage of problems above, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,735,761 and 7,762,713 to the inventor discloses a food waste disposal system by putting microbes during a process of drying the food waste, comprising a mixing basin installed in a housing, and a rotational shaft with a plurality of mixing blades.
Although the food waste disposal system of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,735,761 and 7,762,713 have resolved the prior art's drawbacks, in the mixing process of food waste inside the housing, even there is a plurality of mixing blades rotating in one direction, the food waste inside the housing is not mixed enough to be decomposed thoroughly and some of the food waste tends to move to one local area, causing dead zone where mixing blades cannot be reached. During continuous operation of the food waste disposal system, the accumulation of the food waste moved to the dead zone is significant and the efficiency of the food waste disposal system becomes deteriorated. Also, a rotational shaft assembly driven by the chain requires the lubrication in regular basis during the long period of operation. Also, there is a possibility that the breakage of the chain when the large amount of load is imposed on the shaft assembly, thus there needs to revise the motor drive system which is more stable than the chain driven system.
Also, the users tend to put more food waste inside the mixing basin than the maximum allowable weight of the food waste disposal system because they try to cut the garbage expense down by putting more waste into the machine. The over usage of the food waste disposal system causes severe load to the rotational assembly, reducing decomposition process of the food waste, further resulting in the breakage of the system. It is not practically feasible to educate the user to follow the instruction manual. So, there needs to revise the system in the machine side to protect the food waste disposal system from overloading.
Also, In the process that the decomposed food waste goes down to the washing chamber through the perforated plate located at the bottom of the mixing basin and the water sprayed by the washing nozzle cleans the food waste sending all the residues to the drain, the food waste containing high viscosity is hard to pass through the perforated plate, causing the perforation to be clogged. So, besides the cleansing mechanism by the water spraying, there needs a device that mechanically brush out the perforated plate to unclog any holes in the perforated plate.